


The Merry Go Round Broke Down

by thesimplyuninspired



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, Amusement Parks, F/M, Kid Fic, Single Parent Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-22 08:51:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9598100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesimplyuninspired/pseuds/thesimplyuninspired
Summary: Indiana Jones has broken down. Luckily, Dean and Emma get to make new friends.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Dean Creations Challenge  
> Theme: Dean's pop culture references  
> Prompt: Indiana Jones
> 
> Last November, I went to Disneyland for the first time in 20 years, and while riding Indiana Jones, the ride broke down for maybe a solid 10 - 15 minutes. We got to go again immediately and both times were extraordinarily fun, it just incidentally gave me a nice jumping-off point for this particular prompt.

“This is the longest I’ve ever been stuck, but my cousin Avery told me that one time, when he was riding Pirates…”

Beside him, Dean felt Emma incrementally relax while the boy on the other side of her talked. He had worried that going on Indiana Jones would be a little too much for her, even with her insistence that she could handle it. That worry had been reborn anew and transformed when the ride actually stalled, forcing them and the other occupants in the car to wait in near-total darkness. He’d found her hand almost immediately and she’d clung to him tight, and despite his whispered assurances she had been stiff as a board, her hand trembling in his.

Luckily, it seemed the boy, Ben, was always ready to make a new friend. Soon enough, Emma wasn’t shaking anymore, and barely jumped when the lights came up.

“…even though I don’t really believe Avery much, he likes to make stuff up. Do you have cousins?”

Emma shook her head. “No, not really.”

“You’re not missing much,” Ben shrugged.

Dean barely forced back a snort. On the other side of Ben, his mother’s eyebrows shot up a little as she regarded her son. Dean recognized the expression of a parent reminding themselves to have a little chat later. If he was honest, part of him really wanted to be a fly on the wall of that conversation.

Over the kids’ heads, Ben’s mother looked up and caught Dean’s eye. She smiled, a little apologetically. In response he merely shrugged. _Kids. What are you gonna do?_

She inclined her head a little bit in acknowledgment. Still not saying anything, one of her hands came up and rested between Ben’s shoulder blades, rubbing slightly. This diverted Ben’s attention only for a second, causing him to glance back momentarily at his mother, but not stop talking to Emma. Emma’s hand was now relaxed in Dean’s grip, the tremors from minutes ago mere memory now.

Dean wanted to check in on her then, but suddenly the car jolted to life beneath them, the ride gathering itself to start up once again. Emma snapped back to attention, her fingers gripping his own tightly.

When the ride was over, Dean leaned over to her and asked if she wanted to try it again. When one of the staff workers asked the same thing, she lifted her hand in a thumbs up with the others.

***

“He seems friendly,” Dean commented.

“Oh, he is,” Ben’s mother, Lisa, responded. “Makes my job a little bit easier, y’know?”

When the ride had finished a second time, Dean had been prepared to part ways with Braedens as fun but ultimately temporary encounter and go along his and Emma’s day as usual. Except that while, the two had been content to stick close to their respective parents while exiting, once the crowd opened up, Emma and Ben had gravitated back to each other and struck off side by side. Now, Dean and Lisa trailed a few steps behind them, keeping them in view and grabbing distance at all times, even as they themselves took the moment to talk to each other.

“Yeah, I hear you,” said Dean. “Emma’s a bit choosier about who she hangs out with.”

“Hey, look, if he’s bothering her-”

“What? No.” Dean dismissed Lisa’s concerns with the wave of his hand. “Listen, if Emma wasn’t interested in talking to him, we would both know it. Kind of takes after her mother that way,” Dean added to himself absently.

“Is, uh…,” said Lisa, glancing around, “is she around? Emma’s mom?”

“ _Hell no_ ,” said Dean, a little more emphatically than he meant to. Lisa’s expression shifted in surprise, and Dean winced, taking his turn to look apologetic. “I mean- no. She’s, ah, she’s not in the picture. It’s kind of complicated, but, uh… no. It’s just me and Emma.”

“…I’m sorry,” said Lisa softly.

Dean shrugged in response. “You didn’t know.”

“Still…,” said Lisa, trailing off a little bit. Then she shook the rest of her thought aside, continuing, “Me and Ben are kind of in the same boat.”

“Really?”

“Mm-hmm,” Lisa nodded, watching Ben and Emma point out things on what they could see of the Jungle Cruise. “But, I mean. It’s better that way, right? Better than having to make room for somebody who doesn’t want to be there. I wouldn’t want Ben invested in somebody who wasn’t going to be just as invested right back.”

Dean had nothing to say to that. Instead he looked back towards Emma, chatting back and forth with Ben now. Her eyes were bright and though she was not smiling, it occurred to him that she looked truly, genuinely happy.

 _She should always look like that_ , he thought.

“…Whoa, hey, did I just make things weird?” asked Lisa, laughing a little bit.

Her laughter was contagious. Dean found himself chuckling a bit as he answered, “No, no, not weird at all. I just, ah, I just thought of something a little sad, y’know? It happens.”

Lisa squinted a little at him, but smiled as she nodded. “Yeah. I think I know the problem.”

Dean rubbed at his eyes a little bit, wanting to change the subject. Fortunately for him, he didn’t need to as Emma came running up to them. Fixing Dean with that bright stare, she stood practically vibrating from head to foot, eyes darting between him and Lisa for a second before asking her question all in one breath.

“Ben says that he and his mom were going to Jungle Cruise next, just like we were, so maybe we could go with them?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Ben chimed in, bouncing up to Emma’s side to look pleadingly up at his mother. “It’s just right there! And like, think of the coincidence, right? We should all totally go together, please?”

Dean and Lisa exchanged a wordless glance of surprised amusement before looking back to their kids. Emma was doing her best to give a serious expression, but the excitement shone through as though through paper. Dean found himself a bit stunned before it- and just as quickly as he was caught off guard, he realized his mistake. Because it suddenly occurred to Dean that, without realizing it, he had been caught in a puppy dog stare of deceptive strength.

He found himself looking back to Lisa. She had been more prepared for the trap Ben had placed for her, but Dean could see she was not unaffected. When she looked back at him, her mouth quirked up in a smile, and she shrugged.

 _Kids, right?_ she seemed to ask.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos are lovely, comments are welcome.


End file.
